Survey etiquette ???

[duncan99210]

There's no legal obligation to use the normal offer, deposit, survey, sea trial,completion route. It's up to the individual to negotiate with the broker or seller if they are not comfortable with this method. I don't have a problem with it: I withdrew from a sale when the survey revealed some significant problems which the seller wouldn't rectify or adjust the price for and the broker funded the deposit without question. Equally, the deposit ensured that our current boat remained ours despite delays in completing the purchase: the 10% was accepted evidence of our good faith in wanting the boat. However, that's my opinion: others are free to approach purchasing a used boat by another route should they so wish and the seller be prepared to go along with them.

In fact the last boat I sold was through an eBay ad, an unseen offer over the phone, a quick visit to look at the boat followed within half an hour by a cash sale. Had fun explaining why I wanted to deposit all that cash to the bank.....

 

[Tranona]

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If you follow this logic you'd need a deposit before viewing. What if someone scrapes the woodwork or breaks an item on the inventory etc when looking around?

I'm amazed that arranging a survey for £500 and if applicable paying lifting fees somehow still has you ear marked as a time waster and more cash up front is required.

It reads to me as 'We know the surveyor will find faults and we don't want the buyer to get cold feet,'

No wonder some of those AWB's are difficult to shift...

Not logical at all. It is not unreasonable to allow access to people to view - you have to accept that not every viewing will result in an offer. However, ingeneral people, even the time wasters respect other peoples' property. It is different when a viewr becomes a buyer - that is he has made an offer that is accepted subject to the findings of the survey. Perfectly reasonable then as costs will be incurred and the seller is allowing free access to his private property, to ask for a deposit. Cannot see why a serious seller would object. After all the deposit becomes part of his offer so he has to pay that some anyway. In return he gets free access and knows that the seller cannot withdraw without breaking the contract.

Why do you always have to see everything from a buyers point of view and are reluctant to commit? Some time you are going to be a seller and will welcome the process.

The process has nothing to do with why boats don't sell. They don't sell because there is nobody prepared to make an offer that is acceptable to the seller. It is the seller's right to reject offers that he does not find acceptable and live with the consequences. Equally a buyer should recognise that if he makes an unacceptable offer it will be rejected.

 

[Seven Spades]

When I bought my boat privately the seller used the RYA forms and insisted I pay him the 10% deposit after signing the contract before my surveyor put scrape marks all over the hull which he duly did. I understand that the surveyor was checking moisture content to eliminate osmosis although I am not sure that I have herd of any boats made of vinyl ester suffering from osmosis.

Once you sign the RYA contract and pay your 10% deposit, you won't get to back unless there are serious defects found in the survey. Minor defects will not prevent the sale but a financial adjustment may be in order.